Attendance at kindergartens in Latvia has decreased for the fourth consecutive week due to illness, according to the monitoring data from the Disease Prevention and Control Centre.
Latvia's early childhood education institutions are experiencing a decline in attendance for the fourth straight week, as reported by monitoring data from the Disease Prevention and Control Centre (SPKC). Last week, only an average of 66% of children attended these institutions, representing a drop of 2.2 percentage points from the previous week. The decline has been notably significant in the towns of Liepāja and Jēkabpils, which recorded decreases of 9.6 and 7.1 percentage points respectively.
Daugavpils has been reported to have the lowest attendance rate last week, with only 56.8% of registered children attending kindergartens. In contrast, Riga recorded the highest attendance rate at 70.2%, though this also marked a slight decrease of 0.3 percentage points from the week prior. Overall, attendance in kindergartens has decreased in eight out of ten municipalities included in the monitoring. However, in the municipalities of Rēzekne and Gulbene, the attendance rates have remained stable for the past two weeks.
In contrast, the average attendance rate in general education institutions was reported to be 86.6%. This ongoing decline in kindergarten attendance amidst rising health concerns highlights the potential implications for early childhood education and the need for public health responses to address the underlying causes of this sickness trend.
